Archives
2003: Vol.
2, Numbers 1-12Read
past articles including:Series
on Leadership continued
Avoiding Dictatorship in a Free SocietyArt
and Politics Living
the Good LifeTeaching
Teens World
Peace in Less Than a Month?

Myth fulfills in
primitive culture an indispensable function:
it expresses, enhances and codifies belief;
it safeguards and enforces morality;
it vouches for the efficiency of ritual
and contains practical rules for the
guidance of man. Myth is thus a vital
ingredient of human civilization; it
is not an idle tale, but a hard-worked
active force; it is not an intellectual
explanation or an artistic imagery, but a pragmatic
charter of primitive faith and moral wisdom. . .
.

For the purposes of this
article “myth” does
not mean “false,” as in a widely held
misconception not based on fact. Rather, “myth” is
used as something basic to human psychology that
shapes a person’s worldview and sense of
identity. It is as Joseph
Campbell or Mircea
Eliade would describe
as something alive and vital, and central to culture
and civilization. Through the power of myths, people
learn the norms of their society and how to act.
Campbell and Eliade would say that myths reflect
a sacred history for a people while the psychoanalyst
Carl
Jung would say they are based on universal
archetypes residing in the human sub-conscious.
In both characterizations they are the underlying
spiritual forces and images shaping human actions.

When viewing contemporary
political behavior as a social expression of
worldviews based on underlying psychological
or religious concepts, one may view the battles
over ideology, religion or the conflicts of political
partisanship as competing myths. The passion
such competition generates is indicative of how
strongly different myths define a people’s
concept of themselves, their responsibilities,
and their moral obligations.

The origin of myths and their
influence on a people’s
worldview is not simply religious, but is the expression
of how perfected beings would act in different
historical eras and in different geographical and
cultural settings, with different demands and requirements
for human survival. Even assuming that underlying
archetypes may not change, the theater in which
they act may do so. Also, as people’s awareness,
psychology and intelligence evolve, their sensitivity,
understanding and interpretation of archetypes
may change as they adapt to new circumstances,
and may become more refined or take on different
modes of expression.

Many ideologies or factors
that motivate political partisanship at present
are based on worldviews that have not adapted
to the contemporary needs of civilization, or
to the perceptions, tools and behaviors that
have evolved with current technology, economy,
and science. In the realm of myth, “science,” being
how human beings adapt and solve the problems of
material and social life, is not incompatible with
basic archetypes of religious heroes (ie. “perfected
beings”). Similarly, “morality” is
not incompatible with intelligent, pragmatic behavior.

Today’s political cultures where terms such
as “globalization,” “sustainable
development,” “social networking,” “human
rights,” “ethnic cleansing,” and “global
warming” mix with terms like “religious
fundamentalism,” “liberal,” “progressive,” and “conservative,” seem
like they are worlds away from the deeply psychological
and mythic forces that shaped societies that depended
directly on nature to survive. Nevertheless, all
those terms reflect the various ways humans respond
to the social and natural world that determines
contemporary life and shapes modern political identity.

While what people conceive
of as the limits of their territory and of those
people that constitute their “community” has definitely expanded,
human behavior is still largely a function of consciousness.
Consciousness is the awareness of one’s place
within the whole of what makes one’s life
possible. Often what seem like irreconcilable polar
opposites are in effect the playing out of different
worldviews shaped by the concern for security and
identity within the same environmental circumstances.
Myths play a large role in people’s self-concept
and fundamental sense of right and wrong. Modern
peoples can be seen as equally prone to emulating
their particular “heroes” as were primitive
peoples.

The fundamental core of political behavior grows
from essentially a worldview that is either positive
or negative, optimistic or pessimistic. The worldview
that creates optimism is empowering to the individual
and group, while that which is pessimistic stresses
protection of the individual and group. The mythic
archetypes that are called into play to substantiate
the positive and negative worldviews constitute
the actors in the dramas of political theater.
Domestic and international politics viewed as theater
reveals the actors as characters playing predictable
roles. The script is the same as eternal legends
and tales, but in a new setting.

If common ground ever emerges
from the conflict of different worldviews, humanity
will paradoxically experience the richness of
human diversity. It is not in the details of
the myth that make human experience, but rather
in the quality of the myth. Does the myth inspire
optimism or pessimism? If it inspires optimism
human expression and behavior will be expansive,
generous, and geared to the common good. If it
is pessimistic, it will be fearful, protective,
and geared to the security of the individual
or the individual’s group. All the “-isms” of
political philosophies can be simplified by these
two criteria: are they derived from an optimistic
or a pessimistic view of humans and human society?

The interaction of evolving human consciousness
and evolving technological tools with the current
challenges of global needs is tending to produce
a sense of optimism in spite of real threats to
survival. The new consciousness is the recognition
that the behavior based on a fearful worldview
is anti-survival in spite of producing protective
instincts. It may be seen that the archetype of
the journey to death is the source of the fearful
worldviews, while the archetype of the journey
to life is the source of optimistic worldviews.
This recognition is simply that in the subconscious
human myth, it is the archetype of the hero that
is victorious over obstacles and conquers death.

Thus, the worldview based
on fear and pessimism is outdated and unfit for
the future, and what’s
more, it is the fabric of falsehood. A major function
of the all the current crises in the unfolding
drama of the human myth is to reveal the falsehood
of life and politics based on fear. The irony and
tragedy is exemplified by the extreme measure of
using torture to “protect” when the
reality is that it does the opposite. Ghandi demonstrated
that for real progress and for the protection of
truth, it is only the hero’s journey of integrity
and adherence to core moral values that produce
results that prove the truth of one’s cause.